Teaching Zack to Think: Developing Critical Thinking Skills Too many students are not sure how to tell fact from fiction on the Internet. The Internet can provide any version of the truth to support almost any belief. We can teach students how to read the “grammar” of the Internet and to apply strategies to validate information on a website. This popular session provides step-by-step teaching tips that help students and teachers think critically about Internet information and improve their online search strategies.
ACTIVITY A: In small groups, use the REAL steps to examine one (or more) of the above websites. ACTIVITY B: Conduct a basic search on a common student research topic. Use one or more of the REAL steps to compare the potential value of three sites to meet your information need.
Narrow your Search: Phrase | Boolean (AND/OR/NOT) | Domain/Extension | Filetype | Date
(EXAMPLE phrase "to be or not to be" shakespeare)
(EXAMPLE boolean hamster AND/OR gerbil "class pet" )
(EXAMPLE site: American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov / Harlem Renaissance)
(EXAMPLE filetype: "very hungry caterpillar" filetype:pdf cut out -or- world OR country OR global energy consumption filetype:xls)
(EXAMPLE domain ac.uk "revolutionary war" OR "war of american independence" site:ac.uk -french
-or- "simple machines" inurl:k12 filetype:ppt -or- green energy site:sa)
(EXAMPLE define harold Where in Chicago can I go see a Harold?)
SEARCH TIP: Combine operators and keep refining to improve your results.
SEARCH TIP: Put your search terms in context. Include the "thing you are looking for" with your search terms, e.g. "lesson plan, " "timeline," "map," "tutorial" or "podcast."
Google Search Options Panel: News | Books | Videos | Related Searches | Timeline | Wonderwheel
(EXAMPLE timeline: oil spill, titanic; EXAMPLE wonder wheel Victorian England)
Google Books - http://books.google.com
Search the full text of more than seven million books. (Part of standard search).
Classic example of "Type & Hope." (Image by Stefan).
ACTIVITY: Do a search for a topic of interest (possibly curriculum-related). Start by Thinking Like a Webpage, and see how far you can refine and improve the results using the Google Advanced Search techniques above (Think Like a Search Engine).
Sometimes you need to Go Beyond Google. (and try searching a specialized database).
Wolfram Alpha - http://www.wolframalpha.com/ (access to the world's facts & data; calculates answers across a range of topics)
Bing - http://www.bing.com (a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions)
ACTIVITY: "Social Searching:" Try one of more of the following:
- Use Twitter Search to locate three resources about about a current news topic
- Teach yourself something of personal interest or curricular relevance in YouTube
- Locate 5-10 quality resources on a topic of interest by searching Diigo
What About Wikipedia?
Wikipedia Classroom Uses
Wikipedia is a gateway site - students can use it as a starting point to: gain background knowledge, build search terms, locate resources / cited materials.
ACTIVITY: Check out a topic of professional or personal interest in Wikipedia. Does the content seem valid, complete, well-written? Visit the Discussion tab to see if there has been any conversation or controversy about the article. Also look at the History tab and explore a few of the revisions.
Table of Contents
Too many students are not sure how to tell fact from fiction on the Internet. The Internet can provide any version of the truth to support almost any belief. We can teach students how to read the “grammar” of the Internet and to apply strategies to validate information on a website. This popular session provides step-by-step teaching tips that help students and teachers think critically about Internet information and improve their online search strategies.
Read full article:
http://novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/teaching-zack-to-think/
Website Validation (REAL)
Evaluate websites with variations and extensions of skills you use to evaluate print materials.Wayback Machine - http://www.archive.org
Use the Link:command (Yahoo, AltaVista, Google); http://smallseotools.com/backlink-checker/ or
http://www.backlinkwatch.com
REAL Video Series (Brian Mull, November Learning) - http://vimeo.com/8579858
Sites to Examine
ACTIVITY A: In small groups, use the REAL steps to examine one (or more) of the above websites.
ACTIVITY B: Conduct a basic search on a common student research topic. Use one or more of the REAL steps to compare the potential value of three sites to meet your information need.
Dig in to Google
(EXAMPLE phrase "to be or not to be" shakespeare)
(EXAMPLE boolean hamster AND/OR gerbil "class pet" )
(EXAMPLE site: American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov / Harlem Renaissance)
(EXAMPLE filetype: "very hungry caterpillar" filetype:pdf cut out -or- world OR country OR global energy consumption filetype:xls)
(EXAMPLE domain ac.uk "revolutionary war" OR "war of american independence" site:ac.uk -french
-or- "simple machines" inurl:k12 filetype:ppt -or- green energy site:sa)
(EXAMPLE define harold Where in Chicago can I go see a Harold?)
(EXAMPLE timeline: oil spill, titanic; EXAMPLE wonder wheel Victorian England)
Search the full text of more than seven million books. (Part of standard search).
Use Google search technology to search the human-edited Open Directory. Why use Google Directory?
"Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research." About
ACTIVITY: Do a search for a topic of interest (possibly curriculum-related). Start by Thinking Like a Webpage, and see how far you can refine and improve the results using the Google Advanced Search techniques above (Think Like a Search Engine).
Search Smarter
ACTIVITY: "Social Searching:" Try one of more of the following:
- Use Twitter Search to locate three resources about about a current news topic
- Teach yourself something of personal interest or curricular relevance in YouTube
- Locate 5-10 quality resources on a topic of interest by searching Diigo
What About Wikipedia?
Students can edit articles for Simple English Wikipedia.
ACTIVITY: Check out a topic of professional or personal interest in Wikipedia. Does the content seem valid, complete, well-written? Visit the Discussion tab to see if there has been any conversation or controversy about the article. Also look at the History tab and explore a few of the revisions.
Web Literacy & Critical Thinking Resources